


World Victory Tour - Auckland

by nanuk_dain



Series: Drift Compatible [57]
Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Drifting, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, PBC (Post-Breach-Collapse), PPDC World Victory Tour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 04:32:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18461552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanuk_dain/pseuds/nanuk_dain
Summary: In Auckland, Raleigh takes Mako on a trip and they discuss the rather unusual situation with Yancy.





	World Victory Tour - Auckland

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go, some nice Raleigh-Mako bonding time with a sprinkle of Yancy :D I hope you enjoy it!  
> (I miss New Zealand... *sniffles* Six months now since I left. Wow, that was quick... I want a mochaccino from the Lala Café in Parnell... Best mochaccino ever...)

_Auckland, New Zealand, March 2nd 2025_

 

Auckland is _very_ busy.

They arrived yesterday early in the afternoon, and there was already a live TV show planned for the evening. Since their stay in New Zealand is short with only two stops, there are a lot of events condensed into a very short amount of time. Right now Mako is taking part in a radio show that is already the second for the day - and it's only 11 am. Raleigh and Chuck as well as the Wei Tang brothers and the Kaidanovskys are sitting in the room with her and the show's two hosts, talking about the life as a Ranger. In this morning's show she was joined by Sensei, Hansen-san and Caitlin Lightcap, and the focus of the discussion was on the PPDC and its past and future. Since Mako is a part of both areas of expertise, she's scheduled to participate in both events. 

It's tiring to answer the same questions over and over again, to say the same things in different words many times over, but Mako knows it's part of her job, of her duty. She's sure she wouldn't mind as much if her mind was clear and focussed, but it hasn't been ever since the video call with the K-Science team about four days ago. Mako wants be able to focus on the current events, but her mind keeps drifting to the complicated situation with Yancy Becket. She's still not sure what to think about the theory that she and Yancy might be a perfect match, which only makes her think about it even more. It's distracting, and she doesn't like being distracted.

Mako is glad when the radio show is finally over and they're chauffeured back to their current hotel. She's sitting in the back, sandwiched between the window and Raleigh, who claimed the middle seat between her and Chuck. The Wei triplets are bickering in the row behind them and Sasha and Aleksis take up the row in front of them. Mako is tired from the flight, the time difference and the late show of last night, and she allows herself to stare out of the window and think about nothing at all for the duration of the ride back to the hotel. 

She's glad that she got rid of her sling a few days ago, although the pain in her collarbone is not entirely gone yet. She's still moving a bit stiffly and the crew's physiotherapist is working with her daily to get her range of movement back. Right now it only adds to her exhaustion and she needs a moment to relax, even if it's only for the short drive. Because once they get to the hotel, there's an official lunch planned with the political and social elite of New Zealand, from the Prime Minister to the CEOs of the companies that participated in the K-war effort. She'll have to be focussed for that. 

When the van stops, the motion shakes her out of her reverie and she straightens in preparation of exiting the car and slipping back into her professional persona. There's a gentle bump of a shoulder to hers, right before Mako hears Raleigh whispering, "How are you holding up, Mako?"

Mako gives him a tight half-smile and doesn't bother to hide the little sigh.

"Yeah, same here." Raleigh chuckles, but it's a little strained. He makes to say something else, but that's when the sliding door is pulled open and the Kaidanovskys get out of the van, followed by Chuck shimming out of the confines of the car and the Wei triplets urging them to get moving already.

"Are you in later?" Raleigh asks when they're making their way through the lobby towards the elevator bank. The lunch will be held in the large event hall that takes up the top floor of the hotel and overlooks the city. 

"I am." Mako confirms with a quick nod. "Until about three o'clock."

"I'll come by, then. After the official lunch." Raleigh replies hastily before a PR assistant herds him, Chuck and the Kaidanovskys into one of the waiting elevators. Mako nods again, but she's not sure Raleigh even sees is because the doors are already closing and then she and the Wei triplets are escorted into the other elevator. Once they reach the designated floor, they're all on their best behaviour and do their job as instructed by Ms James and her team. It's exhausting, although Mako appreciates the extraordinarily good food. 

By about about 1 pm the lunch is officially over and Mako is relieved that she finally gets to go back to her room. For a moment she thinks about taking a nap, then decides against it. She still has to work on the designs for the feet of the Mark VI series and her engineers are waiting for her to send her suggestions over. Mako takes off her shoes and places them neatly next to the door, then she gets her tablet and settles on her bed to get some work done. It feels good to be able to use both of her hands again, it makes her so much faster and she allows herself to immerse into her design ideas. She's not surprised when there's a knock on her door about half an hour later.

"Come in." Mako says in reply and waits for the door to open. She already knows who it is, which is why she doesn't bother to get up from where she's sitting on her bed with her back resting against the headboard. True to her expectation, Raleigh peeks into the room, a little smile on his lips and something hidden in his hand. 

"I brought you something." He closes the door behind him before he holds out a jar along with a spoon. Mako can't help chuckling when she sees that it's chocolate pudding. "The lady from the reception told me about this café that's famous for its chocolate pudding, so I decided to get you some to try." 

Raleigh kicks off his shoes and places them next to hers, then he crosses the room and sits next to her on the bed. He scoots up to lean against the headboard as well before he hands her the pudding and the spoon. Mako accepts both with a sincere smile after disposing her tablet on the bedside table. "You're too good to me."

Raleigh leans in until their shoulders and upper arms are touching and smiles back. "That's what friends are for."

Mako opens the jar and dips the spoon into the pudding, which smells very good and tastes even better. She closes her eyes and lets the flavour explode in her mouth, enjoying every second of it. There's nothing better than a good chocolate pudding. 

"This is excellent." Mako tells Raleigh with a genuine smile. She feels better already.

"Good to know." He says with a content smirk and obviously takes pleasure in seeing her enjoy her chocolate pudding. There's a comfortable silence between them that's soothing in its ease, and Mako allows herself to indulge in the taste of her surprise pudding. She takes her time and cleans the jar thoroughly before setting it aside on the bedside table. 

She turns to face Raleigh and smiles again. "Thank you, Raleigh. It was one of the best chocolate puddings I have had so far."

"I'll have to thank the reception lady again. I told her I needed the best chocolate pudding in the whole of Auckland, and it seems her recommendation was spot-on." Raleigh replies with a pleased grin.

"You went through all that trouble just to get me a chocolate pudding?" Mako feels humbled and at the same time pleasantly warm that Raleigh cares about her so much.

"Of course." Raleigh says without even a second of hesitation. "I figured that you're as troubled as I am by the stuff the K-Science team told us. And since I know for a fact that few things make you forget the world like a great chocolate pudding, it was time to _find_ a great chocolate pudding."

"You know me too well." Mako chuckles, touched and amused at the same time. Raleigh is right, though, that the revelations of the K-Science team have left her troubled. She's been thinking about it constantly, about the possibility that she might _have_ a perfect match, that she might have _found_ it, that it might be _Yancy_ \- who is out of reach at the moment, maybe even forever. Who is practically impossible for her to meet, because she still thinks that that three-way drift is incredibly risky and might not work as well as the K-science team thinks it will. Still... 

"You're thinking about doing it, aren't you?" Raleigh asks quietly and gently bumps her shoulder with his when she takes too long to reply. He doesn't even need to specify what he's talking about, he really knows her too well.

Mako takes a deep breath and lets it out in what is almost a sigh. Yes, she is thinking about entering the three-way drift with Chuck and a sedated Raleigh, despite her reservations. She can't stop thinking about what Dr Geiszler and Dr Lightcap told them, about the possibilities that suddenly seem to open up - for Yancy, for Raleigh, for her personally, for the field of drifting in general. At the same time she wonders if it's maybe just her own, selfish wish for a perfect match that's making her consider something as risky and highly dangerous as a three-way drift. Dangerous for Chuck, Raleigh and Yancy, too, not just for her. If it was just her, she wouldn't hesitate to go for it. 

"It is risky." Mako says instead of a proper answer. She is aware that Raleigh knows what she's not saying, though. He has most likely thought about pretty much the same things in the past few days.

"It sure is. But every time we go for something new, it's risky. That's no reason not to try, as long as everything is carefully thought through." Raleigh points out with that straight-forward logic he applies to most things in life. "Chuck drifting with me while I was sedated was risky. It was worth it, though."

Mako nods quietly, there's nothing she can say against that. Of course it was worth it. If they hadn't done it, they would never have learned about Yancy being trapped in Raleigh's mind. They would never have learned that it was safe to send Hansen-san into the drift with Sensei when he was still in a coma. They would never have learned about the specifics of the pons in relation to the consciousness of its participants. She would never have learned that she might have a perfect match.

"It's not just me who this is dangerous for, though. It's not my place to risk your lives." Mako points out because that's the thing bugging her the most. "We all know that it could go catastrophically wrong. I'd be risking three lives along with mine."

"It's not only you who gets to decide whether we enter that three-way drift or not, so don't worry. If Chuck and I agree to it, it's because we think it's worth it and not because you asked us to risk our lives. It's our decision just as much as yours." Raleigh hesitates for the fraction of a second, then he continues, his voice very quiet. "I have much to gain, too, Mako. Knowing that there's a chance, never mind how slight, to get Yancy back is a strong motivation. But I won't risk you and Chuck if there are still substantial odds and the general uncertainty of the whole thing hasn't been cleared up way more than it is now."

Mako presses her lips into a thin line. "We are both not very objective concerning this decision, Raleigh."

"True." Raleigh admits with a nod. "But Chuck is. And I think Yancy is, too. It's a good idea to talk to him first and hear what he has to say about the whole thing. We should only go ahead with it if all four of us agree to it."

"Even if Yancy agrees, we can't be sure that it's true that he and I really are a perfect match." Mako forces herself to say it out loud. It's something she doesn't like thinking about, not now that - contrary to all common sense, contrary to knowing better - she has latched onto the hope that there is a perfect match for her, somebody who understands her without words, who wants her just the way she is. She wants that so much, a relationship as deep and meaningful as Sensei's and Hansen-san's, as Raleigh's and Chuck's, as Sasha's and Aleksis'. She has seen it so many times, for such a long time, and she has always dreamed of having that herself. It's exactly that intense desire for it that makes her question her own motives for wanting to enter that three-way drift. She has to remain rational, she cannot allow her judgement to be clouded by her desires. It's too dangerous, and it's not just her own life she's gambling with.

"I don't think there's any other way to find out but that three-way drift." Raleigh says after a moment of silence. "Do you think it's a possibility? That you're a perfect match with Yancy?"

"I don't know." Mako replies quietly. It's something she has been thinking about a lot since the video call with Dr Lightcap, Dr Geiszler and Dr Gottlieb. "I can see their point, I can understand their arguments, I can understand how they reached their conclusion."

"But?" Raleigh encourages her to continue. He knows there's more.

Mako licks her lips in a gesture that she is aware is partly nervous, partly fortifying. She'll have to get personal to make him understand, and that never came easily to her. "You know that I... long for a relationship like that of a perfect match."

Raleigh just nods, but doesn't interrupt her. He has seen those things about her in their drifts, and Mako is incredibly grateful for that. She's glad she doesn't have to explain all of it in words since he already _knows_ , he _understands_.

"I'm not sure I can trust my judgement on this situation _because_ of my desire to have a perfect match of my own." Mako continues to explain. "I wonder if I'm just readily accepting their arguments because they align with something I want so much. I wonder if I might judge them differently if it wasn't about something I want."

"I can see that point." Raleigh agrees after thinking about it for a moment. "But if it makes you feel any better, there are several objective people considering the issue, and if their conclusion coincides with yours, it's safe to say that your judgement isn't impaired. And you have to admit that it _is_ strange that we had 100% connection strength while simultaneously being out of phase and that that was the precise moment you took Yancy's point of view. These are facts, after all, they're not your imagination."

"It is strange." Mako nods. "I always thought that I got Yancy's side of the memories through your drift with him. I never wondered why I saw almost all of your interaction through Yancy's eyes. It felt perfectly natural. Another point that makes me think is that it's true that all memories I experienced from Yancy's point of view were a lot more intense than those I saw through your eyes."

"So you _are_ starting to believe that you two might be a perfect match?"

Mako hesitates, thinking about how to reply to that. "It's not exactly 'believing' it. It's more that when I look at things on a different premise, it's interesting how things that never made sense suddenly do. Things that the K-Science team didn't mention because they can't know about them."

"Give me an example." Raleigh prompts with unconcealed curiosity.

Mako doesn't even need to think about what to say. "Physical contact."

"Physical contact?" Raleigh wonders out loud, obviously not quite following.

"I am not a very physical person, you know that." Mako elaborates. "Yet I have never shied away from physical contact with you like I usually do with other people, especially when I don't know them well. I remember that I always liked being close to you, though, even from the first moment of us meeting. It amplified after our first drift. It's like it's grounding me, calming me. It's not sexual attraction, but a profound sense of comfort that comes from physical closeness."

"Yeah, I know that feeling." Raleigh smirks. "I also felt it with you from the very first moment on. It kind of threw me at the beginning, especially because there were no sexual vibes whatsoever. I've never experienced that before."

"Me neither." Mako smiles with a sense of relief at his words. She never expected that it would feel so good to hear Raleigh say that this feeling of closeness is - and always was - mutual. 

"By the way, it's the same feeling I have when I touch Chuck. Ever since we drifted, that's what physical contact with him does to me, even if it's just standing close enough that our shoulders brush." Raleigh continues after a pointed pause and looks at her in a way that's definitely challenging. 

"So you mean that's another indication that Yancy might indeed be my perfect match." Mako spells out what he's not saying.

"I don't know." Raleigh admits with a shrug. "It's not like I'm an expert. I'm just pointing out funny coincidences." 

Mako hums in consideration of his words, not quite sure if he has a point or not. It does make sense, but she still doesn't quite dare to fully believe it. It's not the only issue with the whole thing, anyway.

"But even if the three-way drift works, even if Yancy and I are a perfect match, where do we go from there?" Mako forces herself to ask that question, because that's another thing that's been eating at her. "He's still only a guest in your mind."

"I don't know." Raleigh admits with a heavy sigh. "I really don't, but I won't give up hope just yet. Wasn't it you who pointed out to me that the greatest minds and the foremost experts were working on this? Regarding their track record, I think it's safe to say that they're going to come up with something and that they're likely to surprise us."

"Maybe." Mako remains sceptical, because the situation is beyond unusual. There's no obvious solution for how to deal with a perfect match without a body, caught in another person's brain. Put like that, the odds seem insurmountable.

"We'll just have to take it one step at a time, see where it leads us, and keep going." Raleigh says with a shrug. He remains quiet for a while, then he suddenly checks the time, sits up and takes Mako's hands to give them a pull. "Now come off the bed, it's time that we get going."

"Get going?" Mako asks in momentary confusion, not just at the sudden change of topic, but also at what he's taking about.

"Yep. We've got plans." Raleigh grins enthusiastically. 

"What plans?"

"It's a surprise." He says and pointedly wriggles his eyebrows. 

"I fear I don't have time to go out." Mako replies apologetically. "I have an interview this afternoon."

"Nope, you don't. I cleared it with Ms James, you're free until tomorrow morning. She managed to move the interview." Raleigh definitely looks smug.

Mako smirks. "You put some thought and effort into this, didn't you?"

"Yep." Raleigh grins broadly at her, and his enthusiasm is contagious. "I have it all planned out. Now get up and get ready. I'm not getting any younger."

Mako chuckles and slides off the bed. "All right, all right. I don't want to make you wait any longer."

"That's too kind of you, Ranger Mori." Raleigh acknowledges with a theatrically deep bow, complete with raising an imaginary hat. Mako can't help laughing at it and feels her spirits rise after their rather depressing conversation. It feels good to let go of all her worries for the time being and to just allow Raleigh to take the lead and guide her through his plans for the day. 

"I'll meet you in the lobby in ten minutes." Raleigh grins, his face full of pleasant anticipation. "Dress for a day of outdoor adventure."

Mako chuckles. "All right. Ten minutes." 

"Great." Raleigh disappears out of the room and Mako gets her cargo-pants, a t-shirt and a jacket out of her luggage. She quickly changes and slips into her combat boots, then she's off to head down to the lobby. Raleigh is already there, dressed very similarly to her and with a daypack slung over his shoulder. 

"What are your plans, Raleigh?" Mako asks when she can't quite contain her curiosity anymore. They're walking down Queenstreet to Britomart, and the ongoing works to repair the damage of the Kaiju attack last year are omnipresent. She can smell the sea, and the sound of the seagulls gets louder the closer they get to the quays.

Raleigh reaches into his pocket and holds up two small tickets. "We are going to take the ferry to Waiheke Island, and then we'll spend the day hiking and enjoying the nature and the lovely views. The island was spared by Hound, so it's still in as perfect a condition as before the Kaiju attack."

"Waiheke Island?" Mako asks, remembering that she read about the beauty of the island in the tourist guide that lay in her hotel room.

"Yep. It's the perfect spot to forget the world for a day. I visited it with my family when I was a kid." He points with his thumb at the daypack on his back. "So I brought sandwiches, fruit and plenty of water. We're good for an afternoon of hiking."

Mako feels pleasant anticipation fill her entire being. It's been ages since she last went hiking, and she always loved it. Hong Kong isn't the best place to go for hikes, though, and she's always been too busy to take an entire day off, anyway. 

"That sounds like a great plan." Mako says with a genuine smile on her lips. Only minutes later they board the ferry and Raleigh insists that they head to the top deck and stand outdoors when the little ship leaves the harbour. Mako feels the sun on her face, the wind in her hair and the scent of the sea in her nose. Raleigh is grinning next to her, hair tousled by the strong winds, and he looks completely relaxed. 

Mako can't help returning his grin and suddenly it feels like she's breathing easier, like the exhaustion is lifting. Raleigh really _does_ know her too well, and she doesn't mind one bit.


End file.
